Rating: 4.75 🌈

The Ashes of Ackonir by Jennifer Cody is a fantastic standalone novel that has the breadth and depth to be the foundation of a great series.

The author has gone to incredible detail in creating the world of Maldrin. Cody has referenced at the beginning of the book a glossary of terminology, cultural references, historical and geographic information. It’s astonishing. Right after this comes a list of the Deities, starting with Ackonir, god of blood, seduction and immortality. A god worshiped by vampires.

Then, equally important, comes a list of trigger warnings. They’re too complicated and long to repeat. But do read them carefully before making your decision to continue on.

The story is a two person narrative, which is hugely important as there’s a purposeful power imbalance from the beginning to the relationship of the main characters. It’s implicit in their political stations and more importantly, in their personal dynamics.

Sparrow, whose painful adolescence is slowly revealed over the course of the story, is the son of King Edrick’s roaming late wife and Consort, Mara.

Both Sparrow and his mother share a complex relationship and labyrinthine history that weaves together cult like religious beliefs, hidden ancestry, and, heinously, an abandonment that left Sparrow to his father’s cult members for raising. A child raised within such an environment has no connection to the outside world or any idea that some of the rules or practices aren’t common elsewhere. That’s Sparrow. And sexual activity was practiced by all members .

Edrick is a son of Ackonir. What exactly that means will become clear later on in the narrative. However, what Cody’s story brings is an immediate, and perhaps inevitable mating between the two men.

Edrick’s character is powerful, supernatural, explicitly sexual in nature, with that base of seduction and dominant sexuality laid out everywhere, from the clothes he’s wearing to the designs within the palace. Their sexual dynamics is layered with the dominance and submission that’s part of each man’s nature, carved into them by their past history, and current roles. Cody has built a very strong and compelling relationship. One that reveals itself to be even more complex than it initially appears.

The narrative is equally complicated, containing multiple storylines and all woven together to create a mystical experience and unforgettable tale of love, death, and gods.

I’m highly recommending this and hoping that Cody continues on with this universe and characters with another story.

Buy Link:

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Blurb:

Sparrow:

Life beyond the walls of Eoam, the commune where my mother raised me, has never tempted me. My needs are fulfilled as long as I work, and if my life is full of more sorrow than most, it’s because I was born for it. But even I have my limits, and when the people who’ve raised me do the unthinkable, I burn the walls down and walk away.

My first steps away from the commune lead me straight into the company of someone I barely knew existed. Edrick was once married to my mother, but the life she lived in the palace never touched me, and I’m surprised when Edrick brings me there.

I thought I’d be walking into a world similar to what I’d been taught, but the more I see of Maldrin, the more I realize that I was made powerless by the people who were meant to love me. As my anger stirs, so does Edrick’s, and he decides to empower me with a title, tutors, spies, and maybe even real, actual love.

I’ve never known what love is, but if anyone can convince me I was born for more than sorrow, it’s Edrick Dastropha, the Emperor of Maldrin.

Edrick:

I never got to live in my wife’s company more than a few months at a time, and as much as I wanted her to myself, I couldn’t keep her wild heart caged in the palace. She lived in a commune with her other lovers when she wasn’t with me or traveling, but she kept that part of her life private because she knew my ability to control my jealousy had limits. Now, more than a decade after she’s gone, she has one last surprise for me.

Sparrow is as beautiful as his mother was and far more tempting. I invited him to live with me to honor her, but when the first thing I notice about the young man is how needy he is and how beautifully he fits in my arms, the best I can offer is my solemn oath that he will always have a place under the wing of my protection.

Preparing him for life in the palace requires more than I expected, and as I spend time with him, it becomes clear that the commune I allowed to exist because my wife loved it hurt him in infuriating ways. I will do everything in my power to give him what he needs, even if that means making another sacrifice to the god of blood and seduction.

If anyone can rise from the ashes of Ackonir, Sparrow was born for it.

The Ashes of Ackonir is a MM steampunk fantasy romance between an emperor with vampiric tendencies and the tempting little lost lamb with blood that sings to him. This book includes a heavily imbalanced power-dynamic, political intrigue, war, and other complex tropes. Readers should consult the content warning at the beginning of this book before reading.

• Publication date: March 19, 2024

• Print length: 323 pages